digg API.NET - C# Implementation of digg Web Services

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example implementation

Table of Contents

Introduction
Background
The Digg API
The Base Url
The Application Key
Parameters
Endpoints
The C# digg Interface
StoryCollection Object
Story Object
Code Examples
Setting Library Properties
Get Most Popular Stories
Get Upcoming Stories
Get Stories By Topic
Get Upcoming Stories By topic
Get Stories Submitted By a User
Get Stories a User Has Digged
Get Story By it's ID
Get Valid Topics
Conclusion
ToDo
History

Introduction

Digg.com is the popular social news web-site that allows it's community to dictate which articles make it to the site's front page and which end up in the pits of internet hell, never to be read... by anyone. The concept is simple, digg.com members search the web for articles that they find interesting and then submit them to the site. The users of the site vote (or digg) on the articles and if enough people vote on the article it will be promoted to the front page. In addition, each article maintains a comment page where digg users can comment (or flame one another endlessly) on topics relating to the article.

Aside from being entertaining, digg.com provides a wealth of priceless information regarding comtemporary culture, science, sports, business, lifestyle, and technology. In the past, aggregating this data meant one had to use screen-scraping techniques with a mountain of Regular Expressions. Thankfully, digg has now provided users with a rich API for getting at it's data. My goal was to abstract the interface into a .NET object oriented library that can be imported into any project. It's still lacking a few features I'd like to add but it's certainly useable.

Background

Quite some time ago I rolled my own personal Rss Aggregator and viewer and at that time I discovered a great open-source component for parsing Rss feeds, Rss.NET. The library had worked flawlessly up until a few months ago when I began to notice that the feeds from digg.com were timing out. The Rss.NET library worked with all my other feeds but for some reason started to receive 403 Forbidden messages while trying to establish the HttpWebRequest to the digg.com servers. At this time I began researching the digg API for an alternate method for obtaining the feeds. While building a .NET library to interface with the digg API I discovered that the Rss.NET library was failing due to not setting all the required properties for the WebRequest object such as UserAgent, Credentials, and Accept. I have since added the necessary properties and sent a copy of the change to the Rss.NET developers.

However, since I had already come this far with the digg API I set about completely the portions I had begun and this article outlines that effort.

The Digg API

The full documentation is available from the digg.com api site.

The Base URL

The base url for accessing the api is http://services.digg.com/. However, if you attempt to access that url on it's own you will receive a (403) Forbidden error due to the fact that you have not provided an appkey value. The appkey is probably going to end up being a unique key that must be purchased once digg sells out, but for the moment, it's any valid url.

Application Key

The application key or appkey value represents the requestor of the data. It can be any valid Url and presently is only used to track which web service users are consuming what data. The appkey value is appended at the end of the query string. All queries must provide an appkey value in order to receive the data.

http://services.digg.com/story/popular?appkey=http://www.codeproject.com

Parameters

The digg.com API documentation contains all the parameters for each request but the most common ones are:

• count - the amount of records to return (0-99)
• sort - promote_date-desc, promote_date-asc, submit_date-desc, submit_date-asc

http://services.digg.com/stories/popular?count=25&appkey=http://www.codeproject.com 

Endpoints

Endpoints represent the url location to post your query. Below you'll see most of the endpoints available.

/stories - All stories. 
/stories/popular - Popular stories. 
/stories/upcoming - Upcoming stories. 
/stories/container/{container name} - All stories from a given container.
/stories/container/{container name}/popular Popular stories from a given container.
/stories/container/{container name}/upcoming - All stories from a given topic.
/stories/topic/{topic name}/popular - Most Popular stories in a topic
/stories/topic/{topic name}/upcoming - Upcoming stories from a given topic.
/story/{story id} - Identified story.
/stories/{comma-separated list of story ids} - A list of stories with the given ids.
/user/{user name}/submissions - Stories submitted by given user.
/topics - Get a list of all topics. 
/users - All users. 
/user/{user name} - Named user.
/user/{user name}/friends - Named user's friends.
/user/{user name}/activity - All digg and comment activity for a given user.
/user/{user name}/activity/diggs - All digg activity for a given user. 
/user/{user name}/activity/comments - All comment activity for a given user. 
/story/{story id}/activity - All digg and comment activity for a given story. 
/story/{story id}/activity/diggs - All digg activity for a given story.. 
/story/{story id}/activity/comments - All comment activity for a given story. 

The C# digg Interface

StoryCollection Object

The StoryCollection is the heart of the library. When the StoryCollection object is instantiated, it creates a Story object to hold all the values of each story. So you just need to enumerate the story object contained in the collection to access the values. In order to construct the object you must send in the:

• ArticleType - enumeration for the query to run (see below)
• ArticleTypeCriteria - optional: the search criteria for certain queries

//In the references add

using Baileysoft.Rss.DiggAPI;



StoryCollection articles = StoryCollection(ArticleType.byUserDiggs, "thund3rstruck");

   foreach (Story article in articles)
        Console.WriteLine(article.Description);

Story Object

The Story type is an object representation of each article. You enumerate the StoryCollection and extract any values you need from the Story objects. See the properties below.

Code Examples

NOTE: All code examples require a reference in the project to the DiggAPI.dll and declarations

using Baileysoft.Rss.DiggAPI

Setting Library Properties

You can pre-define global settings by changing the field values in Globals.cs or you can define them programmatically (e.g. see below)

  Globals.Count = "3"; //max 99

  Globals.AppKey = "http://www.codeproject.com"; //the referring site (your site)

Get Most Popular Stories

 Globals.Count = "25";
 Globals.AppKey = "http://www.codeproject.com"; 

 StoryCollection articles = new StoryCollection(ArticleType.popular);
 foreach (Story article in articles)
       Console.WriteLine(article.Title);

Get Upcoming Stories

 Globals.Count = "25";
 Globals.AppKey = "http://www.codeproject.com"; 

StoryCollection articles = new StoryCollection(ArticleType.upcoming);
foreach (Story article in articles)
     Console.WriteLine(article.Title);

Get Stories By Topic

 Globals.Count = "25";
 Globals.AppKey = "http://www.codeproject.com"; 

 StoryCollection articles = new StoryCollection(ArticleType.topic, "apple"); //must be a valid topic

 foreach (Story article in articles)
      Console.WriteLine(article.Title);

Get Upcoming Stories By topic

 Globals.Count = "25";
 Globals.AppKey = "http://www.codeproject.com"; 

 StoryCollection articles = new StoryCollection(ArticleType.topicUpcoming, "apple"); //must be a valid topic

 foreach (Story article in articles)
      Console.WriteLine(article.Title);

Get Stories Submitted By a User

 Globals.Count = "25";
 Globals.AppKey = "http://www.codeproject.com"; 

 StoryCollection articles = new StoryCollection(ArticleType.byUserSubmissions, "thund3rstruck");
 foreach (Story article in articles)
       Console.WriteLine(article.Title);

Get Stories a User Has Digged

 Globals.Count = "25";
 Globals.AppKey = "http://www.codeproject.com"; 

 StoryCollection articles = new StoryCollection(ArticleType.byUserDiggs, "thund3rstruck");
 foreach (Story article in articles)
        Console.WriteLine(article.Title);

Get Story By it's ID

 Globals.Count = "25";
 Globals.AppKey = "http://www.codeproject.com"; 

 StoryCollection articles = new StoryCollection(ArticleType.byId, "2572048");
 foreach (Story article in articles)
        Console.WriteLine(article.Title);

Get Valid Topics

 Globals.AppKey = "http://www.codeproject.com"; 

 TopicsCollection topics = new TopicsCollection();
 foreach (string topic in topics)
        Console.WriteLine(topic);

Conclusion

This library came entirely out of me not taking the time to dive into RSS.NET to identify why digg feeds timed out with (403) errors. In any event, this was a neat project and if it gets a good reception I may keep working on it.

ToDo:

• Classes for enumerating comments
• Classes for submitting articles
• Classes for digging articles

History

• 07/24/2007 - Submitted article for DiggAPI v.01

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Good ..but I have a problem ulfat hussain 21:13 10 May '09   Hi nice work .. I have a question. When using it on my local machine there was an error.For Parser class Line 154 HttpWebResponse webResponse = (HttpWebResponse)webRequest.GetResponse(); The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found. So is why I am unable to use it.I created a web application in 2005 and added reference for dll but the error was same. Do I have to change the following lines Globals.Count = "25"; Globals.AppKey = "http://www.codeproject.com"; if i am running local.Or it will work.Please reply. Regards Ulfat Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Good ..but I have a problem thund3rstruck 3:16 11 May '09   Thanks for the comment. I traced a break point down to the Url being used in the GetComments() method in the Parser class. If I get some free time this week I'll take a deeper look. Digg has changed their web services (in April) and this change seems to have broken the library (at least the factory that enumerates Story Comments). Digg's API documentation can be found here: http://apidoc.digg.com[^] It appears they have changed and removed some of their endpoints. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Good ..but I have a problem ulfat hussain 0:50 9 Jun '09   Hi! Today I was going to integrate Digg with my application.Same problem occurred.I debugged the code and found there were some mere changes which would solve the problem. As you said that they had changed the API. The change was in the response stream.They have changes the ordering. So ID and Link were intermixing.Here is the changed code which worked for me.I am posting it here so that some one else can find it easy to change. Class Parser.cs Function name : populateStoryCollection in for loop .. then in switch statement..I changed following lines case 0: newStory.Link = reader.GetAttribute(i).ToString(); break; case 1: newStory.Diggs = reader.GetAttribute(i).ToString(); break; case 2: newStory.SubmitDate = reader.GetAttribute(i).ToString(); break; case 3: newStory.Id = reader.GetAttribute(i).ToString(); break; case 4: newStory.Comments = new CommentsCollection(newStory); break; //newStory.Comments = reader.GetAttribute(i).ToString(); break; case 5: newStory.CommentsUrl = reader.GetAttribute(i).ToString(); break; case 6: newStory.PromoteDate = reader.GetAttribute(i).ToString(); break; case 7: newStory.Status = reader.GetAttribute(i).ToString(); break; Regards Ulfat Hussian Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Good ..but I have a problem [modified] Timker 10:11 13 Aug '09   I have modified this code to minimize errors related to schema changes in the response. You will notice that I have also changed the type on some properties and even added some. public static void populateStoryCollection(StoryCollection alStories, string diggWebServiceUrl) { XmlTextReader reader = Parser.CreateWebRequest(diggWebServiceUrl); XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument(); doc.Load(reader); foreach (XmlNode story in doc.SelectNodes("//story")) { Story newStory = new Story(); foreach (XmlAttribute attr in story.Attributes) { switch (attr.Name) { case "link": newStory.Link = attr.Value; break; case "submit_date": DateTime submitDate; TimeSpan submitspan; long submit = 0; if (long.TryParse(attr.Value, out submit)) { submitspan = new TimeSpan(submit); submitDate = DateTime.Now.Subtract(submitspan); } else { submitDate = DateTime.MinValue; } newStory.SubmitDate = submitDate; break; case "diggs": int diggs = 0; if (int.TryParse(attr.Value, out diggs)) { newStory.Diggs = diggs; } break; case "id": newStory.Id = attr.Value; break; case "comments": int x = 0; if (int.TryParse(attr.Value, out x)) { newStory.CommentCount = x; } break; case "href": newStory.CommentsUrl = attr.Value; break; case "status": newStory.Status = attr.Value; break; case "media": newStory.Media = attr.Value; break; } } if(story.SelectSingleNode("description") != null) newStory.Description = story.SelectSingleNode("description").InnerText; if (story.SelectSingleNode("title") != null) newStory.Title = story.SelectSingleNode("title").InnerText; if (story.SelectSingleNode("user") != null) { foreach (XmlAttribute attr in story.SelectSingleNode("user").Attributes) { switch (attr.Name) { case "icon": newStory.SubmitterIcon = attr.Value; break; case "name": newStory.Submitter = attr.Value; break; case "profileviews": int profileviews = 0; if (int.TryParse(attr.Value, out profileviews)) { newStory.SubmitterProfileViews = profileviews; } break; } } } if (story.SelectSingleNode("topic") != null && story.SelectSingleNode("topic").Attributes["name"] != null) newStory.Topic = story.SelectSingleNode("topic").Attributes["name"].Value; if (story.SelectSingleNode("container") != null && story.SelectSingleNode("container").Attributes["name"] != null) newStory.Container = story.SelectSingleNode("container").Attributes["name"].Value; alStories.Add(newStory); newStory = new Story(); } } I am curious why you were using an integer indexer. modified on Thursday, August 13, 2009 4:32 PM Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Awesome iffy456 12:59 3 Jan '08   Thanks man, I too ran into the problem getting Digg feeds with RSS.NET -> your solution works a charm. Thanks again Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink really need to add support for comments hacx2k6 22:23 4 Oct '07   the api is really good and well explained but you should really add support for the comments functions. waiting for it.. thanks, yaniv. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: really need to add support for comments thund3rstruck 8:11 5 Oct '07   I've added the requested classes for enumerating comments of a story. --T3 Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: really need to add support for comments hacx2k6 8:49 5 Oct '07   i already finished creating the needed parts to return the comments, i can send it to you if you want, just give me your email. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: really need to add support for comments thund3rstruck 9:25 5 Oct '07   Nah, I went ahead and created it as well. I can setup a subversion repository if you want to collaborate on new features just let me know. --T3 Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Another .Net Digg API + Your API's mention pag_floyd 13:08 3 Aug '07   I have a posted a blog entry mentioning the .NET lib available for digg api - including thund3rstruck's and an older, DiggTools - which as of now was not working but 've tried to make it work again through a tutorial. Have a look at: http://virtual-view.blogspot.com/2007/08/net-library-for-digg-api-making-it-work_03.html http://virtual-view.blogspot.com Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 5.00/5 (1 vote) Re: Another .Net Digg API + Your API's mention thund3rstruck 17:39 3 Aug '07   I appreciate the feedback! Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Thank you merlin981 5:44 25 Jul '07   Thank you for this informative article ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm paid to surf the web. Are you? I get my developer tools from Merlin A.I. Soft ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink How to get Dugg count Michael Sync 17:23 24 Jul '07   I like "DiggThis" plugin (PHP) in my wordpress blog. How can be done the same thing in ASP.NET?? Thanks and Regards, Michael Sync ( Blog: http://michaelsync.net) Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: How to get Dugg count thund3rstruck 3:24 25 Jul '07   From the plugin's website: "Digg this wordpress plugin is a plugin that detects incoming links from Digg.com to your wordpress post and automatically displays a link back to the digg post, for people to digg your story. When a digg is first recognized an email is sent to the site’s admin The detection is based on the referrer URL, which has to come from digg. In case there is more than one digg posts to your page, only the first one will be displayed." That does seem like an intersting tool. Is it open-source? If so please provide a link and I will analyze it. I wonder how the page is identifying whether digg is linking to your article? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: How to get Dugg count Michael Sync 16:27 2 Aug '07   thund3rstruck wrote: Is it open-source? Yeah. All of wordpress plugins are free and open-source. but those are written in PHP. here is one of them. http://tuggo.org/projects/diggit/[^] Sometimes, I used to use this digg button my blog since wp.com integrated diggthis[^] button for their free blogs. it's very easy to use.. first, we have to submit our content (blog post) to digg website. then, get the URL from digg site.. Put it like that "[digg=http://digg.com/myurl]" in our post.. then, it will show the count of how many people are dugging this post.. but I'm not sure how this plugin works. According the documentation "Integrate: "Digg This" Button[^]" from digg website, we only need to add one javascript file. So, i guess, nothing required to change to use in ASP.NET project... so, maybe. we could do diggbutton control for asp.net project.. Thanks and Regards, Michael Sync ( Blog: http://michaelsync.net) Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Source code missing Tony Bermudez 16:47 24 Jul '07   The link to the source code is broken. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 (1 vote) Re: Source code missing thund3rstruck 3:18 25 Jul '07   How strange, I used codeproject.com's wizard to submit the article and it automatically added the link to the source but the link was not valid... Anyhow, I editted the article and manually added the link so the link is now working. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink

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